The were fresh out of college and still wet behind the ears when they took over coaching duties at Clements High School more than 40 years ago.

But while most coaches their age prefer to forget those early years in the possession, Bill Graham and Johnny Black cherish those days.

“It’s a lot more fun to look back to those days than to look ahead today for me,” said Graham, who was only 26 when he won a state football championship in 1966, the same school year Black, 25 at the time, won the state championship in basketball.

But both – who have long since retired from coaching – admit the players they had on those teams made it easy for them.

“It was a special bunch of kids,” Black said. “They were all good boys and good athletes.”

Clements High School will honor those state champions – 1966 in football and 1967 in basketball – tonight at halftime of the Clements-Ardmore football game, which kicks off at 7. All but two of the players who are still living are expected to attend.

Graham and Black got together Thursday to reminisce about those two great teams.

“Back then, we had only two coaches and the basketball coach served as the assistant in football and the football coach served as the assistant in basketball,” said Black. “Today, Clements High School has six fulltime assistant football coaches.

“Johnny and I worked real well together,” said Graham. “We were both graduates of Florence State College. I came from Moulton and he went to school at Clements and returned to coach here.”

“It was a pleasure coaching with Bill Graham,” said Black. “He was a great coach and I don’t think I ever had a cross word with him. We were always on the same page and I’ll never forget those years with him.”

The 1966 Clements football team, which was the third team in the school’s existence, went 9-0 and claimed the state 1A crown. There were 127 schools in Class 1A then, compared to 64 today.

Black’s 1967 basketball team won the state championship that same school year in dramatic fashion in Birmingham.

The coaches remembered some of those players.

“I think the best overall athlete on those teams was Jack Rose,” Black said. “He was the quarterback on the football team and was a terrific player on the basketball squad.”

Rose, who today is employed by Bell South Telephone Co., hasn’t changed much over the years,” the coaches agreed.

“He doesn’t look any different today than when he was in high school,” Black said. “He’s still lean and trim. Back then he was really a special athlete.”

Graham remembered when John Wayne King was a star player on both squads.

“I remember him playing with an injured shoulder,” he said. “He had to hit with the other side.”

“He had great hands and the ability to run where the ball was,” said Black. “I remember we had three players make the All-State Tournament Basketball Team that year and John Wayne wasn’t one of them. We all knew that was an injustice to him. He should have been on that team.”

King is now an administrator at Athens State University and president of the Limestone County Sports Hall of Fame board of directors. He also serves on the Limestone County Board of Education.

Robert Stewart was another special athlete on those teams, the coaches said.

“He was the Jackie Robinson of Limestone County,” said Black. “He was the first

African American to play ball in this county. He had a perfect personality, and if you couldn’t like Robert, you couldn’t like anybody.”

Stewart now lives in Indianapolis, Ind., and is expected to attend the ceremonies tonight.

Graham recalled that the first two football years (1964 and 1965) were very lean years for the Colts.

“The first year, in 1964, we won one “B” game and one varsity game, and in 1965, we won only once,” he said. “One game we had to play with 10 players because the only two subs we had got hurt.”

But in the state championship year in 1966, the Colts were never behind.

“We always scored first and we never trailed the entire season. One game in particular, I remember Robert (Stewart) ran a 66-yard touchdown on the first play from scrimmage, and we won 6-0. That was against Colbert Heights at Leighton.”

Graham and Black gave much of the credit for their success on the field to the late Clements principal M.T. Newman.

“He made every kid feel important, especially the athletes,” said Black, who also coached at Piney Chapel and Fort Payne and later became a politician serving as chairman of the Limestone County Commission and president of the Athens City Council. “It hurt me more to lose for him than for me.”

Newman died in the fall of 1969. Clements stadium was later named in his honor.

“Mr. Newman was proud of those boys,” said Graham. “Back then, they worked in the fields all day and came to practice at night.”

Graham went on to coach at Clements through 1968 and returned to coach at the school one more year in 1972. He later became a school administrator in the county system before retiring several years ago.